Chapter 72 – Where’s a medicine skill when ya need it?

Slain?! But I didn’t… it was Zln… wasn’t it?

She sat in stunned silence, barely remembering to keep pressure on the open wound beneath her hands, hoping that the concoctions she’d administered would keep him alive long enough. The flask wasn’t supposed to be lethal, but there it was, big and bold and writ six times over, ‘You have slain a foe’…

It took an indeterminate amount of time for a crate, small despite being nearly half as tall as she was, to thunk down alongside her and break her from her stunned introspection. She hadn’t even thought to check the Title, she knew what it was going to say; that she’d killed someone. It was only goblins, nasty things that her clan had been feuding with for generations, but did all their faults make them any less than a human, or a gnome… or even a kobold?

The creak of wood and grunting of effort shook her from her shock once again, reminding her she needed to be paying attention now and could think later.

“What’dya need?” Har huffed, apparently having carried and pried open the container himself.

She had second thoughts about what she was about to do, but everything she saw told her she needed more time for the healing concoctions to do their work and she didn’t see any other way.

“Fortitude and Resilience.” She stated, wishing she’d found a second suspension that boosted Vitality but having to make due with the Strength and Endurance boosting suspension of resilience and hope that it would help more than it harmed.

“You’re not gonna…” Har stammered as he caught on to what she was about to do. “Scale girl, are you sure?”

Replying at barely a whisper, trying not to alarm her patient who was still clinging to consciousness, “No… I’m not.” Shaking her head and not looking him in the eye. “But we’re doing it anyway. Otherwise…” She let her words trail off, trying not put to words that she thought the trader’s chances were slim.

Har fished out the pair of vials she’d requested and handed them over to his apprentice hesitantly. She took them into her bloodstained hands, now both figuratively and literally as they were slick with the trader’s blood, and with barely a glance to pick out which was which, easily done given the resilience bore a blue hue from the flowers that had gone into its making, and tore the stopper out of the Fortitude vial with her teeth and looked to her helper.

The other trader clearly didn’t know what was going on entirely, only that Kori was about to do something to try to help his colleague. As she told him to hold the wounded kobolds head back and help her administer the vials she noticed that he possessed a glassy gaze of his own, likely from the head wound that had been recovered from via the potion.

“Grab another Fortitude for him too, and somebody apply some ointment, just in case.” She ordered, delaying her administration of the suspension for another moment as she hesitated. With slow motions she tilted the contents of the first vial into the wounded kobolds mouth, pausing as he sputtered before continuing until naught remained.

She held off applying the second suspension, just in case the reaction was too violent, and watched with held breath as the man’s scales began to return towards their proper rich red as the boosted Vitality suffused his being. He coughed, blood dribbling from his lips, groaning as each rasping convulsion pulled at his wound still held tight with one of Kori’s hands.

“If you can hear me, check your Status, look for a status condition. It might be called Suspension Illness or something similar. Or it could say unknown, either way I need to know.” She pleaded with him, hoping to confirm if the mending shared its restriction with the other types of suspensions.

He nodded weakly as he tried to respond, but only more wracking coughs came out, blood spittling forth with each. Soon after a Status window appeared before Kori’s eyes, unable to communicate the details he’d chosen to share his Status wholesale.

What she saw was not good.

<<Status condition applied. Bleeding. Severity: High>>
<<Status condition applied. Basic Herbal Healing Ointment Severity: Moderate>>
<<Status condition applied. Basic Suspension of Mending. Severity: Low>>
<<Status condition applied. Basic Suspension of Fortitude. Severity: Moderate>>
<<Status condition applied. Suspension Toxicity. Severity: Low>>

Confirmation that she’d already pushed him over the limit, though thankfully it was only low. She wished she could see more details of the effects themselves, but assumed that if it was possible it was locked behind a Skill she did not possess. If that was the worst she saw, she’d have been happy with it. But the real problem was elsewhere.

Health 87 / 565
Stamina 13 / 685

The potion should have raised the maximums by twenty-five each and their rate of recovery would have increased as well, but the current value wouldn’t have changed. He was nearing exhaustion on his stamina, which would take things from bad to worse if he were impaired even further.

“Scale it.” She muttered, chomping down on the stopper of the remaining vial and tearing it out.

Har moved to stop her, but saw the look in her eyes, the trader hadn’t shared his Status with anyone except Kori, so he had to assume that whatever she had seen was worrying enough to steel her resolve towards such a drastic action.

“Every. Last. Drop.” She admonished her patient, getting a weak nod in response before she began dribbling the vial into his muzzle. Pausing intermittently as he continued to cough.

Once the contents were fully imbibed, a process that took much longer than it should have, they all watched hopefully as the kobolds muscles tensed and he shuddered with the increase to his Strength and Endurance. As the shudders worsened to convulsions those watching on jolted into motion to hold him steady and to replace Kori at his abdomen keeping pressure, since she’d been sent stumbling at the first violent motion of the much stronger kobold practically threw her from her place.

As his body settled into a semi conscious state, muscles still twitching and eyes no longer simply bloodshot but had several spots of blood speckling its whites. Those holding him down noted that his struggles seemed to weaken.

Kori looked to those around her before settling on Har and Zln, “Do we have any moss? Or bandages?” She asked the former.

“We have bandages, but no moss on hand.” Har replied, only to be contradicted by Zln.

“I have some moss, a pinch of dried and a handful that’s withered but still good.” When she saw the look that Har was giving her, “I am still a shaman, even if I can’t do the same things the rest of the Circle does.” Kori noted that she had stopped channeling the spirits and the echoing reverberation had dissipated from her voice.

“I need a poultice and bandages, regular stuff, not more of my ointment. There should be all the equipment you need somewhere in,” waving her hand towards the caravan, “there.”

There were a few looks shared between those assembled, a youngling seemingly ordering about her mentor and a senior shaman, one who’d just battered several goblins, with other goblins, being a little too incredulous now that the excitement had begun to slow and all that remained was waiting and seeing if the critically injured trader survived or succumbed to his injuries.

So, when Har ordered those self-same kobolds to go find whatever Zln needed, followed by orders to Fsc to get a fire started, right after he’d just finished putting out the many he’d earlier started, and boil some water, a few just stared with a look that screamed ‘seriously?’ and glances that said they’d expected the youngling to be reprimanded for her presumption. But all that mattered was that they complied, which they eventually did, as they ran off in search of a mortar and pestle for the animist.

Har then handed Kori the second Fortitude suspension she’d requested for the assisting kobold, who had resumed his original place holding pressure on his friends stomach.

“This might help with your head, are you still missing Health too?” She said, holding the vial towards him.

“Potion did me right up, but the concussion is still goin strong at moderate.” His words were a little slurred as he spoke and guilt painted his face again as he talked about the potion. “Takin alls I got not to puke on Aef here.”

Kori looked to one of the warriors, who was presently dragging a pair of goblins by their ankles to be tossed in a pile well off the road. “We need help here; can you take over keeping Aef still and pressure on his wound?” Glancing at the woman’s hands wrapped around the filthy and blood strewn goblins, “After you wash up if you could?”

Her own suggestion sparking a realization and an idea both, first that she too was filthy, covered in both blood and residue from her earlier mishap, she admonished herself for diving in without first cleansing her hands at the least, and second, that she had a ready source of cleansing on hand. She nearly drove her hands right back into her satchel, stopping only after she saw the edge of her tome sitting within. She was not going to get that covered in blood.

I wonder how much it’s going to cost to get that protective enchantment that Ortik had on his tome…

The question of whether or not she’d be able to get such an enchantment never even crossed her mind, only the cost of it.

Har still stood nearby, so she turned to him to ask for a hand, “Can you grab the cleansing solution from my bag? It’s the one that’s so clear it nearly sparkles.”

I should probably start carrying my own water rune too if this sort of thing is going to happen…

Har just grinned as he pulled his own vial of the stuff from a pouch tied to his belt and handed it towards her with a thin cloth. He’d taken to the stuff quite well, and confirmed it to not be particularly flammable, so was looking forward to rubbing Bolst’s snout in it a bit before he let the old trapper have any.

With a few drops and a bit of water from someone’s canteen, Kori had gone from bloody mess to simply mess, some stains on her clothing having to wait until she could shed them for some scrubbing. The warrior also appreciated the speed at which the solution laden cloth removed not just the blood, but the road dust and grime that had built up before the crimson layer had been painted over it. As soon as the others noticed the now cleansed state the warrior found herself in, a line formed and the cloth and vial were passed back and forth until the only signs of what had occurred were Aef and the bloodstains marring the packed dirt road.

Once freed from his task holding closed the wound, the other trader slumped off the side of the road and relieved himself of everything he’d eaten for what seemed like his entire life. Kori approached, with her own vial of cleanser in hand, and waited for him to be finished before helping him to clean up and sitting him down in the shade of one of the carts. She handed him the suspension and made sure he’d taken it, a bit of focus returning to his eyes as the concussions grip seemed to loosen on his mental state, before returning to Har’s side.

“You did good.” He said, nodding at Aef’s motionless but breathing form, “Is he going to make it?”

It took her several long seconds to reply, her voice laden with grim doubt, “I don’t know…”

“How bad was his status?”

“Bad… really bad… like nearly single digit Stamina and health under a hundred and dropping bad.”

In a moment of rage and despair, Har lashed out at those ultimately responsible for everything that happened. “Those green skinned, slug brained, stump humping, goblin bastards.”

Every other time that one of the elders had said anything even half as obscene as what he just had in her presence, they’d immediately followed with an apology for saying it in front of her. Or been admonished by someone else nearby. All that followed this outburst were grim nods from anyone in earshot. This was likely the first time that she’d ever had an adult so unabashedly curse in her presence and it left her stunned momentarily. So much so that the abrupt change of subject caught her completely off guard.

Clearing his throat Har pivoted to the burning question, one that was still forefront in many of the caravan’s members and had waited for the crisis to settle to be asked. “Now, what exactly did you do during the battle?”

Caught blindsided by the questions she knew was coming sooner or later, she hemmed and hawed “Well… umm… I kind of….”

“Oh, get on with it, Kori.” He rebuffed her, “I’m only mad that whatever it was you hadn’t told me about it.”

“It’s called a Basic Stinging Cloud Flask…” She finally answered, hanging her head a bit low. “I didn’t expect it to be that large… the one me and Imelda tested only covered a few meters…”

Har nodded along grimly, before asking the question she hoped he’d overlook, “And why wasn’t I told of this particular concoction?”

She lowered her head and tried to make herself seem meek and repentant before mumbling, “Because I was going to use it as a prank…”

“Oh really?” he asked, “And who exactly was this going to be a prank on, exactly?” His tone reproachful but hiding an edge of mirth.

“Well… umm… you?”

This was apparently the wrong answer as the undertone of mirth vanished, “You were going to do, that,” waving his hand towards the still somewhat grey covered plants where she’d set off the flask, “to me? What’d I do to deserve such wrath?”

Waving her hands in front of herself defensively Kori quickly responded, “It wasn’t supposed to be that big! The one we tested was tiny, a meter or two at most, and wasn’t nearly so bad.”

“Really now?” Har asked sternly, laying the offended disbelief on a little thickly. “And why would there be such a difference then between your so-called test and the vile curse you unleashed on those gobs.” He spit as he said the last.

“Well… the one we tested was only inferior quality…” Pointing towards the affected site, “that one was an uncommon…”

“That…” again waving to the site of the incident while motioning his hands to mimic a huge object, “that was only an uncommon?! It covered a dozen meters edge to edge and dropped half that in goblins… and most of the caravan once the wind took it…”

Kori just looked at him like he was being dramatic, “It wasn’t that bad… Sure it blinded me for a minute or two… Not sure why the goblins took it that badly… maybe it was because I have poison resistance?”

Wiping his hand down his face and muzzle, Har just stared at the youngling once again. With everything he was coming back with, he wasn’t sure what was going to send Blonc into a rage the most anymore… “Just… just give me any you have left to appraise… You can keep one,” He emphasized himself by holding up a single claw, “just the one, for self defense. But only use it as a last resort and you’re giving it to me when we get to the cavern…”